Justice comes with a price tag

There is lots of talk about God being by his very nature love, and i have no disagreement with that, but there is another side of the coin, which is sometimes God does something we may not like, and we mistakingly believe he is not acting in love towards us. There has to be another side to the nature of love, there are times tough love for a better word comes into play, if it does not i think love is unbalanced and heres why. If my son is doing something which can harm him, i need to step in and stop what is going on, now he maybe enjoying what he is doing, but if due to the situation its going to harm him, i have to do something, to not do it would be a massive dereliction of my parenting skills and a massive let down of my sons trust in me. You see when we only talk about God being a God of love we miss other aspects of his character, we miss those parenting parts which are there for our benefit, even if we don't like them. Obviously we focus on love as thats what we are as human beings, we crave love, we crave intimacy its in our nature its that simple. But we do have to look at that other side of the coin, for justice to work at times its going to cost something, pride may need to take a back seat, it may require us to be disciplined in some way, and that by its nature is not going to be great while its happening or even when its finished. If we take the view that God is father then discipline and judgement needs to happen at times, we can't escape it, it is i would posit an inevitability that it will happen. Does that mean God no longer loves us, no it means he is doing his job of caring for us. That act took its full conclusion in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross, it cost something for justice to be given out, it cost God and it cost Jesus. You see for us to stand clean before him, we had to have a sacrifice, we had to do something and we need to act upon it. Justice has a price, it just depends on what that price is for us as individuals, Yes God is righteous, he is just, he is all forgiving, he loves and he cares, but to have a full restoration back to him, something happened justice was given out and it cost. Yes God is love, but he is also judge, he is also fair, we may not see it at times and we can cart a word of hurt around with us due to how something went on in our lives and we feel that we have not been justly dealt with. God is always going to be fair in his distribution of justice, whether we see it that way depends on the answer or result we get. If we get our own way God has done right, if for some reason God decides we don't get the answer we want, God has failed, God has let us down and he is no longer to be trusted and far too many of us think that way. Its a great cliche but a truism as well " If Jesus is Lord he is Lord of all" that means he is Lord of the good times and more importantly Lord of the bad times, we just need to relearn trust in him, thats not as easy as it sounds but it can be done. Sometimes we over analyse the little things, and miss the big picture, and its the big picture which is important, the big picture is the kingdom and its long term aim. Our corner of the picture as important as it is to us is not the be all and end all, even if we think it is.

Alienation or Conformity

There is a great deal of talk in society and the Church about INCLUSIVENESS, you know this idea that no matter who you are, what you believe, what foibles you have you are included in things, unfortunately we are a long way from that as a society and especially as a Church we don't actually mean it and heres why. If you follow the idea of inclusiveness its great on paper, a bit like communism in theory its great, practise is a different matter entirely you see we can't actually as individuals be inclusive because our ideas get in the way, our own thoughts stop us being inclusive because we have our own ideas. In the last few weeks i have been struggling like a struggling thing in a struggling sack and actually not getting anywhere. You see I'm the real square peg in a round hole, I'm so divided at present on leaving my denomination (Methodism) and finding a new way to follow my God. You see Methodists by and large talk a good show on inclusiveness, but actually if you disagree with the held view, you get ridiculed, bullied into submission, or branded in someway or another and that happens with more regularity than is needed. You see i can claim to be inclusive but that test comes when the rubber hits the road, when something makes me exclusive i stop being inclusive. In the real world face to face you would get a punch in the head for somethings that get said online. But in our safety zone of being keyboard warriors, we think we can get away with harsh words or put down. One of the great terms used by a certain Christian group is "robust debate" what that actually means is "I'm hiding behind my keyboard, I'm never likely to meet you so i can get away with name calling, bullying you, making you look stupid" and in certain respects thats true at the keyboard you can, but lets change tact a little. If i was to turn up on your doorstep would you say the same things to my face you do away from it? 9 times out of 10 the answer is no, because you would be more concerned about the big bloke stood in front of you who you do not know that well. So it comes down to this you can conform to what is expected of you, you can do all the things you are told, all the things that make you acceptable to the masses, or you can risk Alienation from the mass, risk ridicule and bullying, but actually be an individual, you can be a square peg in a round hole.

You see our society does not cope well with the individual who stands out, if its trendy you are in, if its not you are pushed to one side and told "get with the programme" if you do you are welcomed with open arms, told you are wonderful, if you don't you sit on the sidelines and watch what happens. Jesus never excluded anyone from his presence or love, it was there and no matter what you do its there. You can disagree with him, it's still there, you can try and run away, its still there, you see its all encompassing. The worst thing that can happen for God is that the church tries to emulate society, that the church actually denies the basics of our historical faith in order to be "all things to all men" in that trying to be all things to all men we fail, because actually we have no idea half the time what we believe or why, we stall and fumble while trying to be all things, that actually we tend to end up being nothing of any use to the Kingdom of God. Not because we are failures but because we are rudderless people tossed on the sea of good intentions, tossed on the sea of happy happy. Last night i made a decision I'm no longer going to conform to what is expected of me from those who know me or don't know me, I'm no longer going to worry to much about what people think of my opinions, I'm going to shout them out loud and if you don't like them I'm afraid thats just tough. If you are actually inclusive you have no real option but to allow me to do this, you see even if you don't like what i say, even if it grates against you, you have to include me because you believe in inclusiveness, over the next few months i will see which of those who speak of inclusiveness actually are and which of those pay lip service to it. Im 50 years old this month and i think this is where I'm heading, I'm heading into uncharted territory age wise, emotionally, physically and more importantly spiritually. Its going to be one hell of a ride but i have to stay true to my God and his calling, we will see what happens.

If i actually believed God!

What would happen if i actually believed God, not believed in God but actually believed him, you know all that great stuff about love, forgiveness, restoration, not struggling to achieve because its all laid out for you and all you really do have to do is accept it, how would that actually affect my life? What would happen if i actually started putting those principles into practise not just in my life but in the lives of other people, those people i find it hard to deal with, systems i find it difficult to deal with, actually just you know letting God be God in my life. Lately i have been trying to make things simple with regards to my faith, you see sometimes we get so wrapped up in the why for's and what for's that we actually miss the picture thats in front of us. Its very easy (especially as a Methodist) to get so sidetracked by dotting the i's and crossing the t's that we miss a lot of whats going on right in front of us. Over the years i have found much to our shame Christians are the biggest barrier to God, we stop people coming to faith by our actions, we stop them falling in love with God because of us. Lets be honest and we have all done it, would you come to faith if it was down to looking at yourself in the mirror? i would struggle with it. But you see we don't have to struggle each and everyday to achieve what God wants from us, but we spend a lot of time bitching and moaning about the state of the Church that we fail to let people see God, we fail to say "hey this is Jesus, what do you reckon"? Sometimes we need to shut up and just live it out, i have never had the image of God having a big stick to hit me with, i have a relationship with him which is based on love and respect, yes you bet your bottom dollar i struggle with certain things and certain Christians, but I'm not looking to them to fulfil my faith I'm looking to God and all that good stuff he has for us/me. Maybe its time to re evaluate why? we don't believe God, and try and put him into a box of our own making. This is not about belief in God, a lot of people have some form of belief system, this is about believing God can and will do. Is it time for the Church and Christians to re evaluate, get simple, get reconnected with our first love? maybe it is, maybe its not, but I'm beginning to see simple is the way forward, people don't need all the answers sometimes simple faith is enough.

The hypocrisy of being tolerant

The hypocrisy of being tolerant!

Its with a heavy heart that i write this but if i don't I'm gonna explode with a great deal of anger, so I'm hoping this brings about a change of attitude in myself, as well as others.

Lately i have begun to realise that tolerance is a MYTH it just does not exist, because people who claim to be tolerant are amongst the most intolerant people i have had the misfortune to come across recently. There is a lot of biasesness in the media about the Gaza conflict, its a travesty that innocent people on both sides are being killed or maimed, but its not a one sided argument, Israel has a right to defend itself from rockets from Palestine. Now those who shout about tolerance will claim the response is not proportional, unfortunately war is never about proportion its about winning at all costs. So innocents will die and that is WRONG WRONG WRONG and it does not matter what side of the fence they are on. This morning i have been following a thread on a Facebook page, now this page is not an official page of Methodism, but it has some very vocal people on it, who preach tolerance then act in a thoroughly intolerant way, they name call, bitch and moan, and most of the time its because a lot of these people think tolerance is a one way street, well listen up people tolerance is a 2 way street, if you expect me to show it to you, i damn well expect you to show it to me. But this is where the rub lays, tolerance needs to be worked on not paid lip service too, but actually worked on. Now you can have an opinion, i can have an opinion, what is not right is that you or i, get nasty or bitchy because we disagree. There is a great line they use on the UK Methodist FB page and that is " we are a broad church" now what that means invariably is " we are happy to accept you if you agree with us" but as i and others have found if you disagree from the general idea you are pilloried or put down, bullied or just ignored. You see the tolerant only want them to be tolerated.
This week we have just started getting reports through about the atrocities happening to Christians in Iraq, death, rape, and all manner of sub human behaviour implemented by IS, now these are militant Islamists and by no means am i saying every Muslim is a terrorist or murderer, but the longer the silent peaceful majority of Muslims and their leaders stay silent, the extremists will rise and continue to rise in all there hateful glory. I have wept this week over what is happening to my brothers and sisters in Iraq, i have wept over the deaths in Israel and Gaza, and i have realised its not a black and white issue. So this is a plea for those with deeply held views, can we not agree that the deaths of people on all sides is WRONG, can we not agree it needs a solution, and for the LOVE OF GOD can we stop apportioning blame and try and find a solution for all concerned. Its not a blame game, its a complex situation that needs a complex answer.

Im aware some of you will be pissy with me for this post thats fine, delete me if you want to, ignore me if you want to, but do not ignore the travesties happening in the world which are claiming the lives of people i know in real terms, not just virtual friends but people i have sat and eaten with.

Peace people

Andy

The prism of our preconception prison.

The other day i got quite upset, someone on Facebook deleted me as a friend and i have done it to others as well i guess we all have. Now i have never met this person, and only knew them for about 3 weeks via Facebook, but it got to me. Now we all come with baggage and have our push buttons, but does it matter what a stranger really thinks of you? in truth no it does not. But all of us at some stage suffer with it, we dissect it, run it around the garden in our head and want answers, which by and large rarely come or matter.
You see the prisons we make for ourselves are worse than any man made Prison on the planet, we wrap ourselves in guilt, we beat ourselves up and generally blame ourselves for the actions outside of our control when it's not our fault 90% of the time. Our own private prisons to keep us bound up in guilt, fear and failure, our prisons where we let the thoughts and doubts out when we start to feel to good about ourselves and need to reign things back in.

We need to demolish these mental prisons, realise we are all unique, we are all special, we are all great in some way. Yes we may fail at times but that does not mean we need to lock ourselves up in a world of doubt and fear. A few years ago i gave some advice to a friend which I'm going to share here, it seems stupid but it does work i proved it and so did this young woman. Each day when you get up and fell like it aint going to work out for you, when it seems like nothing is going right and every turn off the roundabout is blocked. Look in the mirror and tell yourself you are LOVED LOVED LOVED, its so simple but it does wonders for our doubts and fear, it starts to banish them. Many of my friends good friends are like myself going through the ringer one way or another at present. Its time for us to rise up, to look in the mirror and scream at the top of our lungs I AM LOVED, because we are, i love each and everyone of you, i can't always do a lot, but i can always lend an ear or a shoulder to cry on, apparently my hugs are pretty good as well. So guys and gals next time you feel that Prison of preconception is getting the better of you, kick the door open and tell it where the hell to go

Peace people

Andy

Everyday God

God in his wisdom uses everyday things to show he is an everyday God, not just a wake up call for a Sunday morning. The parables Jesus told were about everyday things, they used the common to put across the divine, Mustard seeds, sowers, fishing, the everyday was used to get across the idea of the kingdom of God, so why have we moved so far away from the simple ideas? why do we now need answers to everything, what happened to trust. Now its a fact of life that no matter what you say or how you answer it's never going to be enough for them, in fact i think in some cases Jesus himself could sit with them and it still would not be enough for them, they would even dare to argue with the real person of Jesus sat in front of them, and in some ways thats really sad. You see with some people you can't win, they need the last word, they need something and I'm not sure what it is, but it eludes them and it eludes me. You can't know everything about everything its an impossibility to retain that level of information, so why do we expect to have all the answers about God, before we trust him fully? do we not know enough about his character to say "you know what, i have enough to trust him, and to trust he has the best in store for me"? but our post modern era requires we question everything, and "if it fits my ideas then its fine and thats the truth so don't you dare question my pathway, don't require me to actually surrender to Jesus, because well if you do that and surrender to him fully, you are an evangelical who does not take the Bible seriously" I know how my car works, not fully but i know the basics of the internal combustion engine and electrical conductivity to know what makes my car tick, but i never designed my car and that pesky manual which gives me information about my car was written by someone else. So i have to trust that manual when it tells me certain things about my car, even when they make little or no sense to me, i have to trust the designer that he/she knows what they are on about, you see they have all the information, and funnily enough to drive my car efficiently and effectively i don't require all the information in the manual, i do not require all the answers. Genuinely i believe God is an everyday God, not just in the way he communicates with us, but by the way he interacts with us, by the way he uses the everyday to get his point across, i never wanted to know everything, because i like the discovery of new things about God, i like the divine spark and intervention which takes place in the everyday. Its not about knowing it all, its about trusting enough, its about letting go and sometimes just letting God, for some people that will never be enough, for me I'm more than happy to trust, you can call it blind faith, you can call it foolishness, in reality it's not likely to change me to much, not because I'm arrogant, not because I'm dumb, but because i have learnt i don't need every answer going to trust in God. 

Get ORFF my land!!!

We all suffer at some stage with Bigotry or intolerance, it may be occasionally it maybe regular, but we all do suffer from it at some point, even those of us who deny it. Personally i know i suffer with it at times, quick to put down, quick to put my own walls up, we all do it, unfortunately its part of human nature. There are certain things which contain bigotry and intolerance in a big way, Politics is one, Religion is the another, it goes with the territory. Some will now be saying no Andy your wrong i don't suffer with bigotry or intolerance, I'm not going to accept what you say, which basically proves the point, thats an act of intolerance to a view you don't like or maybe makes you think about your own actions. You see we all think we are right, we all have that element of pride, history or experience which says I'm right you are wrong.

In the last few weeks i have seen both intolerance and Bigotry, in all sorts of people, people of faith and people of no faith, and in reality they are both as stubborn, bigoted and intolerant as each other, i would even go as far as to say some people of faith are so bigoted and intolerant of others views its worse than those who have no faith. One of the cries you often hear from people of faith is that my way is right, because i have a different, better experience than you, or worse still because i have been studying longer than you, i have the higher ground both Biblically and morally (its been used with me in the last week)

So what do we do about it, how do we deal with the problem of personal bigotry and intolerance. Firstly we have to deal with our own, we have to listen, we have to learn, we have to be open to maybe changing some deeply held opinions. You cannot expect the world to be a more tolerant place until individuals start being less bigoted or intolerant. We have to start somewhere and it needs to start with you and me. Over the past week i have left a number of Christian sites, due to intolerance of others opinions or just plain bigotry, you see i know where my bigotry lays, i know where my intolerance lays, i know i can be  a real nasty, gobby, hard hat wearing fool, with an attitude which is very poor at times. Thing is i don't enjoy being treated with intolerance, so it would make sense to change my attitudes to things, not everything because as much as some of my views can be bigoted some of it is down to interpretation. Do you find yourself always needing the last word, always having to be right, if you do its a safe bet to say you suffer with intolerance and bigotry.

Its time for change but that is going to need work, its going to require a change of heart on certain things, it requires grace and understanding. Next time you post something read it back to yourself aloud, see if it still sounds ok or is it going to sound stupid when its spoken out? if it is bigoted or intolerant, it maybe an idea not to post it, none of us always need the last word, none of us is always right, but we all have that level of intolerance and bigotry no matter how small it is.

Pax people.